IAPA

My friend Jeff and I have been best friends for over 20 years. Throughout the years we've been into a lot of the same things, starting with GI Joes, through skateboarding, Public Enemy and RUN DMC, the grunge era, punk rock, and various other phases as we've grown. For the last several years, Jeff has gotten more and more into the craft beer obsession I have. We grew up several miles apart in a small town in Iowa, and he moved to the Twin Cities about 3 years ago. Jeff has been involved with my brewing through small projects in the brewery, designing the first Beardedbrewing website, and helping out with bottling, etc.
Last year he decided to take the plunge into brewing and we brewed up a beer I originally made for him called El Jefe, a light Belgian ale. For his second beer, we decided to do a pale ale. I haven't made one in quite a while and Jeff's favorite beer is probably Summit's EPA.
Jeff and I have always collaborated well creatively and we talked about my ideas for the label and name. We bounced names back and forth for awhile trying to settle on something that represented us. Through many, many names we settled on IAPA. Not wanting to steal Iowa Pale Ale from Millstream, we decided to go with IAPA. The next fitting thing was going with a John Deere inspired label. John Deere tractors are made near our hometown and Jeff's dad worked at John Deere for a long time. It only made sense to go with a John Deere inspired label, and I was excited to find the font they use on the actual John Deere logo.
As for the beer itself, we settled on a pale ale based loosely on the Summit EPA, which means heavy on the caramel malts, and some fuggles hops at about 30 minutes. There are 2 ounces of Cascade in the end of the recipe. It's been fermenting nicely for a week and I'll be excited to see how it turns out.
In other notes, I'm going to be bottling my Irie Stout 3 soon. It's been mellowing out in the secondary for over a month. At 10% ABV, it's had a bit too harsh of an alcohol taste going on, and I've wanted it to bulk age for a bit to hopefully take care of that. Also, I created a list I want to post soon.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer